Welcome to the podcast election

PLUS: More mainstream media veterans make the jump into independent media.

Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my media industry newsletter. If you've received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.

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Let’s jump into it…

A quick question

I’m super excited to get into today’s media news, but first I have a question for you all.

So I'm looking to get back into longform reporting and writing, and I need your help. Who is a creator or media operator that you'd love to see me profile?

Ideally, I'm looking for someone who's achieved some level of success but isn't so huge that the mainstream media has already profiled them. So no MrBeast. Who's been slowly building out their own mini media empire? It can be in any content genre — news, entertainment, fitness, etc...

Post your suggestions in the comments:

Quick hits

Presidential candidates keep sitting down for longform podcast interviews, and this trend represents a paradigm shift away from TV news. It's not a coincidence that many of these podcasts also have video components that basically recreate the viewing experience for any TV interview. In an age when even the most popular cable news shows top out at a few million viewers, why not go for a podcast that boasts a similarly-sized audience? [Business Insider]

I remain convinced that the next Disney-sized media empire to emerge will have gotten its start as a YouTube channel. [Bloomberg]

It's no secret that Google's latest update led to a huge increase in search traffic to Reddit. This has resulted in Reddit admins making product changes that cater more to Google than its own users ... a move that could backfire in a big way if those users get fed up and start congregating somewhere else. [Posting Nexus]

TV news salaries are finally starting to reflect the fact that the industry has been in terminal decline for at least a decade. The last few remaining stars will either have to accept much lower salaries the next time their contracts are up for renewal or launch their own independent media channels. [Puck]

Serious creators continue to consider Meta a joke when it comes to building a sustainable content business. [Publish Press]

How Stacker distributes sponsored content to thousands of publishers

Most people are familiar with newswires like the Associated Press and Reuters, but a much newer upstart called Stacker has devised a new business model for syndicating content. Rather than charging for access to its articles, it instead gives away its data journalism to any publisher that wants it. It then charges brands a fee to create and distribute sponsored content across the thousands of media outlets that subscribe to its service.

In a recent interview, co-founder Noah Greenberg explained how Stacker works with publishers, its process for creating sponsored content, and why he has no interest in driving an audience to Stacker’s owned and operated website:

I think we've seen that there's a huge trend of brands realizing that they need to build a lot more brand authority and credibility in their space. And a great way to do that is to put out really interesting research in their space. And depending on the organization and their business model and what type of customer they're going after. Sometimes that's just, we need to build really strong brand recognition. So we work with Lyft. Lyft recognizes that everyone has two apps in their phone to call a ride with. And if you've recently read an article that morning in your hometown paper about commuting trends from Lyft data, you're a little bit more likely to pull out the Lyft app. We also work with organizations that help operate marketplaces for life insurance. It's just a really big, highly considered decision. And they know that if you've never heard of their organization or you don't trust them, you're probably not going to look to them to pick a life insurance policy. And so organizations like that, it's less about being top of mind and more about really building trust and authority in your space.

More quick hits

It seems like there's a real acceleration occurring in terms of mainstream media veterans making the jump into independent media. They're looking around at the legacy media environment and seeing nothing but future layoffs and contraction, so they're building their own lifeboats. It could be a watershed moment, and it's probably not a coincidence that this feels like the first election where the mainstream media has lost its grip on the narrative as the candidates go direct to voters. [Jon Erlichman]

Vox-dot-com is increasing output of its paywalled content to boost its membership program. Last week we found out that The Verge, which is owned by the same parent company, is rolling out a metered paywall. As I noted then, Vox Media was one of the largest holdouts in terms of keeping most of its content free to consume. [Vox]

It’s pretty amazing that Shane Smith deserves, by far, the most blame for Vice's implosion, and yet its owners not only allow him to maintain involvement at the company, but also reinstalled him as editor in chief. I can't think of any other examples of rich people being so invested in shooting themselves in the foot. [The Ankler]

We're probably heading toward a future where every entertainer has some sort of ongoing podcast to serve as a kind of connective tissue in between big projects. One of the challenges for, say, actors, is that sometimes years can go by between film appearances, and that kind of gap can make it difficult for them to maintain career momentum. [NYT]

Hodinkee made a huge bet that it could convert its audience of watch enthusiasts into buyers when it acquired an ecommerce site a few years ago. That bet didn't really pan out, especially after the market for used watches experienced a huge dip. Now, it's being acquired by a company that runs hundreds of watch retail stores. It'll be interesting to see whether its new owners can drive synergies between online audiences and physical retail. [NYT]

I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature on my newsletter and podcast

One of the things I really pride myself on is that I don’t just focus this newsletter on covering the handful of mainstream media companies that every other industry outlet features. Instead, I go the extra mile to find and interview media entrepreneurs who have been quietly killing it behind the scenes. In most cases, the operators I feature have completely bootstrapped their outlets.

In that vein, I’m looking for even more entrepreneurs to feature. Specifically, I’m looking for people succeeding in these areas:

• Niche news sites

• Video channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels

• Podcasts

• Newsletters

• Affiliate/ecommerce

Interested in speaking to me? You can find my contact info over here. (please don’t simply hit reply to this newsletter because that’ll go to a different email address. )

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